As is well known, there are special tensions between Hobbesian moral psychology and Thomist moral psychology, on the one hand; and between the Hobbesian theory of free will and its Thomist rival, on the other. But what is the fundamental difference between the Thomist and Hobbesian theories of...

What is politics? An oddity of political philosophy is that it spends so little time answering this question. By contrast, "What is law?" is almost universally considered the chief question of legal philosophy, and "What is morality?" is a question moral philosophers regularly address. But...

The dissertation has two aims. First, to explain why normative theories of politics, economics, and group decisions depend on ethics. Second, to refute the view that they need not. This latter view has recently been defended by Rawls, Hampshire, Williams, and Habermas. The view that all such...

The dissertation has two aims. First, to explain why normative theories of politics, economics, and group decisions depend on ethics. Second, to refute the view that they need not. This latter view has recently been defended by Rawls, Hampshire, Williams, and Habermas. The view that all such...

There is an assumption, widely held by political theorists and philosophers, that is seldom discussed and yet has serious consequences for the practice of political theory. The assumption is that critical and normative inquiry conflict. Critical inquiry is the activity of asking what's bad about...

This Chapter elucidates and defends the second premise of the Argument from Claims about Interest-Affecting Normative Requirement. The premise runs: A theory is a normative political theory just in case it claims that a certain set of normative requirements ranges over (a) some actions, or (b)...

This Chapter elucidates and defends the following thesis: A theory is a normative ethical theory just in case it claims that a certain set of normative requirements ranges over (a) all actions the performance of which would advance or set back persons' interests, or (b) any states of affairs the...